EARLY PLANS FOR A COLLEC TION OF ESSAYS

Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers was the culmination of a project for a first volume of essays that Robert Louis Stevenson had been working on at least since December 1873 when, in Mentone, he had discussed with his friend and advisor Sidney Colvin his ‘scheme’ to produce a series of essays promoting ‘a friendlier and more thoughtful way of looking about one’ (Letters 2: 32). His venue for these essays was The Portfolio, a prestigious art-oriented monthly, whose owner and publisher, Richmond Seeley, was a friend of Colvin’s. Stevenson contributed three essays to The Portfolio within a year (‘Roads’, December 1873; ‘Notes on the Movements of Young Children’, August 1874; ‘On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places’, November 1874) but refused Seeley's offer to produce monthly essays, insisting that he must write at his own pace and ‘take my Essays as they come’ (Letters 2: 33; 15 July 1874).

When in August 1874 Seeley asked Stevenson to ‘propose’ something, Stevenson consulted with Colvin about whether it would be appropriate to tell Seeley about his plan for ‘a little budget of little papers’ on the topic of ‘aesthetic contentment and a hint to the careless to look around them for disregarded pleasures […] call it ethical or aesthetic as you will’. It would take the form of ‘twelve or twenty such Essays, some of them purely ethical and expository, put together in a little book with narrow print in each page, antique, vine leaves about, and the following title: XII (or XX) ESSAYS ON THE ENJOY MENT OF THE WORL D: BY RO BERT LO UIS ST EVENSON ‘. Although he was clear about the title and design of the book, he refused to commit himself more fully to its content, which would make itself known, as each piece ‘slowly came forth, as an unity in its own small way’ (Letters 2: 43).

Although the theme of enjoying the world continued to be a strong presence in his essays over the following years, Stevenson abandoned the ‘aesthetic’ in favour of the ‘ethical’ focus.